LEDs & Ice

[AstonChief]

Hello to All

 

I've recently been posed a conundrum which has had me scratching my head. One of the projects I've been roped into helping out with is a new bar out in Thailand, where all the walls, glasses and furniture are made from sculpted ice.

 

Some lighting has been installed already, by way of 30 x 30W LED wallwashes which look very nice indeed. The problem now is to find a way of picking out the features and statues (obviously all made of ice) without them becoming lost within the general room wash. Some of them are fairly hefty, notably the elephant. <_< Below is a little video showing the room in question, hopefully you can gain a understanding of what I need to achieve from it.

 

(YouTube Link)

 

So far we've tried the more powerful LED pinspot type solutions but they can't cut through the ambient light. We have also considered larger units, such as a selection of LED parcans. These were deemed too "big and ungainly," ruining the atmosphere by being too prominent and visible. Another alternative would be the MR16/GU10 style fittings clustered in some numbers but they'd have to be mounted in trunking which would again ruin the atmosphere. Apparently.

 

I'm just wondering if anyone has come across a small LED unit that has a rather bright output, similar to that of the bigger cans, but in a smaller package? Or another alternative that may be viable in the situation. The total budget is something in the region of £500-600 for ~8-10 units. Maybe more available but "as little as possible" is the request! DMX control would be nice, but is not essential.

 

I've considered conventional fixtures, but heat is a fairly major problem in a room made of ice!

 

Many Thanks in advance

[gareth]

Can't help you with product suggestions (apart from suggesting that you contact BR member 'lightnix' who works in the LED luminaire business) - but please do take some pictures of the finished article and post them in the "Show your show" thread, as it sounds like this could well be quite a spectacular project ...

[Ynot]

What about some concealed use of EL wire....

[Jonny DMX]

Look at some of the stuff from ACDC Lighting

[AstonChief]

I've not considered EL wire before, will definately have a look into that.

 

That ACDC site looks good too, couple of contenders there. All comes down to the unit price though, as ever!

 

Thankyou for the suggestions so far, anything anyone else has will be more than welcome! I will of course post pictures once the bar is finished, but that may be a month or two down the line yet.

[live]

Hi Joe,

Take a look at the Pulsar Chromahearts as they are small and quite bright plus you have DMX (via the chromazone)

I had to light some ice statues a couple of years ago and after trying the NJD mirage leds (not bad but a little large) settled on the Pulsar's due to size and concealability plus they are readily available from most hire companies

hope this helps

G

[Grahame]

Hi Jo;

 

Have you considered fibre optic? If you can house the source outside the room fabric, this could be the solution you're after. You can get some extremely narrow lens attachments that would be ideal for spotting the sculptures. I've used the Philips system before and they are surprisingly punchy.

[greenalien]

I reckon it would be worth trying to illuminate the specific items from underneath, so that the light goes in through the base of the sculpture, and then reflects around inside it - and have the surrounding area darker, for a better contrast.

Sounds like a really interesting challenge, looking forward to seeing the pictures on here when it's done!

[AstonChief]

Lighting from underneath would be spectacular however it would have had to be installed as the room itself was built. The bar itself is lit like that and it is fantastic.

 

I'll have a play with the fibre optic idea later on, we've got a lot of the stuff lying around in the workshop anyway from some of our other products. Could be cost effective!

 

Thanks to all again!

[Roderick]

Continuing on the concept of lighting the sculptures from underneath, how about from inside?

It shouldn't be too hard to drill a hole in the ice just large enough to hold a LED fixture.

 

Just a thought.

[Guest lightnix]

Can't help you with product suggestions (apart from suggesting that you contact BR member 'lightnix' who works in the LED luminaire business)...

Thanks for the mention, although I'm not sure if we have anything suitable (certainly not without some kind of protection against moisture).

 

What about some concealed use of EL wire....

Having played around extensively with EL wire (and been somewhat disapointed each time), I have to say that it's probably NOT the thing to use on any permanent installation. You need to run it at at 4kHz or more to get anything like a usable intensity, at which point the "working life" of the product (the time it takes to dim through so-called wear and tear, to one third of its original, "as new" intensity) is well down into the low thousands / high hundreds of hours.

 

£0.02